Leftists’ Crocodile Tears Over Trump Are Falling Flat

Just one week into President Donald Trump’s second administration, and the crocodile tears and sensational headlines are flooding in. 

Whereas in the Biden administration, nuance and justification were front and center in every legacy news article, now headlines about the Trump administration’s deportation operations for known charged and convicted criminal illegal aliens are filled with tales of fear and hypotheticals.

Unfortunately for those pushing this pearl-clutching narrative, Americans are unlikely to take such large crocodile tears over imaginary “ethnic cleanses” as they did the first time.

Trump is enjoying a higher approval rating now than he ever did in his first administration—and there are certainly a bevy of reasons why.

He has worked at a breakneck pace since Jan. 20, missing most of the inaugural ball, because he hadn’t stopped signing executive orders since taking office. These executive orders have ranged from halting discriminatory practices in the federal government to allowing Immigration Customs Enforcement to begin arresting and deporting known violent criminals who aren’t U.S. citizens, many of whom entered the country illegally.

Many of the executive orders Trump signed were direct reversals of policies instituted by the Biden administration before him, who began on “Day One” in 2021 by reversing over 70 immigration policies Trump had set in place in his first administration.

This back-and-forth was not without consequence, because while Biden, appointed “border czar” Vice President Kamala Harris, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas bragged about reversing what they called “xenophobic” and “racist” policies, the following crisis at the southern border became their responsibility.

This resulted in immigration passing the economy in several regional and national polls as the most important issue to voters. Violence from illegal immigrants, especially those from Venezuelan gangs and drug cartels, made national news. The brutal rape and murder of American citizens in quiet suburbs far away from the southern border could be ignored no longer.

Though at first legacy media outlets and the Biden-Harris campaign attempted to downplay the illegal immigration crisis, this was unsuccessful. Trump continued to rise in the polls, and additional murders and the violent takeover by a Venezuelan migrant gang of an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, coupled with states deploying National Guard companies to the southern border drew attention to illegal immigration. 

Pressed to make a response, House and Senate Democrats attempted to forward an omnibus “bipartisan” bill through Congress which barely addressed illegal immigration, and only bloated a failing system. After the nation got a good look at the bill which would do little-to-nothing to solve illegal immigration if passed, the overwhelming scorn from Republicans and independent media killed the bill.

Biden, then Harris, were consistently pressed by Trump during the presidential debates: just reinstate the policies you know would work. Close the border.

They did not, and Trump won resoundingly in the November elections, carrying all seven swing states and winning the largest share in the popular vote—a feat not seen by a Republican presidential candidate since George W. Bush in 2004. 

Now, Trump has reinstated policies from his first administration, such as requiring migrants pending approval by the United States to remain in Mexico until a decision is made. Trump is ending “catch-and-release,” wherein those illegally immigrating into the United States are stopped by authorities, given a future court date, then released into the country with a promise to come back for their trial. He has also authorized U.S. Border Patrol and ICE to uphold federal law.

Legacy media and leftist influencers have responded with the same tired racist accusations, but they’re no longer remotely effective. Instead, they appear to have the opposite effect.

Trump’s approval rating has grown since the election, not diminished. He’s hit a historic high, with a net approval of +14 according to Rasmussen Reports and Newsweek. In an interview with The Daily Signal, Scott Rasmussen indicated that Trump would need to keep his promises regarding immigration to keep approval up through the midterm elections next year:

Not only are legacy media outlets’ attempts to paint Trump as racist and heartless for his focus on illegal immigration not affecting Americans’ opinion of the president, but they don’t appear to be driving ratings to the outlets at all.

CNN announced layoffs for over 200 employees last week, and has shuffled its schedule around to push its most anti-Trump anchors, like Jim Acosta, to the midnight hour. Acosta has since quit the network in protest. MSNBC and CNN lost 53% and 47% of their prime-time ratings, respectively, in December.

Has this brought about reflection? Consideration for the diversity of viewpoints on immigration in the United States today? No, of course not. The school-marming continues, with CBS and ABC anchors attempting to corner new border czar Tom Holman and Vice President Vance on the heartlessness of Trump’s immigration policies.

While Holman argued that basic human decency demanded the arrest and removal of convicted, violent criminals, Vance took a slightly different approach. In an interview with Margaret Brennan of CBS on Sunday, Vance refused to be cowed:

Leftist outlets aren’t the only ones trying the same routine with abysmal results.

Six years ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, took a trip down to the southern border to have pictures taken of her crying next to a fence outside the road leading to a detention facility. At the time, the “Trump is separating children from their parents” narrative was running rampant.

Monday, actress Selena Gomez posted (and then deleted) a video of herself crying on Instagram, saying she felt “helpless” to stop “my people being attacked.”

The video was immediately mocked and lambasted as ridiculous, as ICE has focused on arresting and deporting individuals convicted of violent crimes—not “children,” as Gomez sobbed. She took the video down less than two hours after she posted it.

There is no solidarity or resistance movement against Trump’s “mean tweets” this time around. Too many Americans have seen their loved ones murdered by gang members or poisoned by fentanyl dealers to whistle a tune given to them by leftist media and celebrities past a graveyard far too close for comfort.

While certain aspects of Trump’s immigration policies and direction, like his clarification of birthright citizenship put on hold by a federal judge, may be met with challenges—it’s clear that a lack of support from Americans isn’t one of them. How long will the cable news outlets, newspapers, and scornful wine moms continue to screech about the presumed racism and xenophobia of basic federal law? Who’s to say?

Regardless of whether or when this strategy is abandoned, one thing is certain: the stranglehold celebrities and legacy media outlets once held over Americans has shattered, and we are never going back.

The post Leftists’ Crocodile Tears Over Trump Are Falling Flat appeared first on The Daily Signal.